DETROIT — The downside of tax season is the tedious process of paying the federal government cumulatively more than $1 trillion in income taxes.

The upside is the marketing genius of dozens of tax service companies across Metro Detroit that dress up grown men and women as the Statue of Liberty, dancing Uncle Sams and who knows what else to make us feel awkward when we pull up to a stoplight next to them — and, I suppose, to encourage our patronage.

I saw and became temporarily mesmerized by my first such character of this tax season this week, a dancing Uncle Sam, donning an American-flag-themed suit, red- and white-striped pants and a several-foot-tall mask and top hat with a tendency to droop.

Without the advantage of music, DeJuan Bynum of Detroit brought the club to the corner of W. McNichols and Lahser where his dance freestyles prompted occasional honks or hollers from passing motorists.

"Just dance," were the instructions Bynum said he received from his employer, National Tax Services at 17180 Lahser in Detroit. "I just have fun."

Bynum isn't in it for the pay, but likes to do it to keep in shape, and, at least his costume keeps him warm, he said. Bynum makes $7.50 for each of his one-hour dance stints.

I don't know about you, but I've often wondered if the costumed dancers I pass along the road are in reality unhappily seething beneath the confines of their sometimes silly outfits.

That's not the case with Bynum, or another mascot I met dancing — a little less convincingly than Bynum — while driving down Grand River Thursday.

His costume seemed thrown together — a red hat, cape and one of those oversized no.1 foam hands. Not a lot of consistency or adherence to a theme.

"I don't want to be on YouTube," he said after declining to be interviewed.

So let's see who the best of the best is when it comes to dancing tax service mascots.

This tax season mascot phenomenon hasn't, in my opinion, been sufficiently explored. So we're calling all MLive Detroit readers to help catalog the areas best tax service mascots.

Please send photos and/or videos of your discoveries as you come across them during your travels throughout Metro Detroit.

Email findings to mlive-detroit@mlive.com

(Please send location where photos or videos were taken; your name, age and city of residence; and, if possible, the name age and city of residence of the mascot)